Working on the Space Shuttle, Almost

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has an article
on Tessellator,
a robot that was developed by CMU to inspect and waterproof the heat
shield tiles on the Space Shuttle. The robot was briefly tested by NASA
in 1994-95 but they decided it didn't do the job as well as humans.
Tessellator now sits abandoned in a corner of the CMU Robotics
Institute, just a footnote in the Space Shuttle program. And, if you're
interested in a footnote to the footnote, don't miss the story of the
Tessellator's run-in with dumpster divers in The Great
Drivertrain Robbery.